A Thousand Facets

A thousand facets sits with Emily Thatcher and they spoke about her love for making things, her fascination with microbiology and of course, this turned into a history podcast because why not?!

Hope you enjoyed this conversation!

My voluminous settings, in which I seat the stone, give space to admire their many aspects. The placement of the stone in the setting parallels the microscopic structures that are so fascinating to me. The interplay of light & shadow is another important aspect of my metal work; using gentle curves, intersected by flat plains, creating a simultaneously visually stimulating & tactile finish.

Every component in my jewellery is either forged or sand cast as a one-off in my Sheffield studio. The creating of a new piece often begins with me alloying the gold in the studio to my own rich hue which has become the signature of my work. My most recent necklace style, The Camur, is comprised of a handmade chain that I developed with an undulating pattern, using the rich gold contrasting with palladium or oxidised silver to accentuate this aspect. Believing that no part of the piece should be hidden and that every part should be made to be admired, this has led me to incorporate the clasp as the main visual element in the piece.

You can follow Emily on Instagram @emilythatcherjeweller, visit her website

https://www.emilythatcher.co.uk/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

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A thousand facets sits with Chris Boland and they talked about his love for minerals, geology and the true meaning of his inspirations.

We question what it is to be responsible in the jewelry business and what is the right music to listen while you work! Spoiler alert, we disagree!

About Chris Boland

My fascination of inorganic structure is used to inform my bespoke jewellery pieces. Strong, bold shapes stress the unique qualities of the inclusions of the gemstones. I draw inspiration from surface treatment of architectural metalwork and sculpture, where marks made during the construction of the work are allowed to remain, often emphasized.

For Me, the authorship lies very much in the making on the object. I work in metal, directly exploring the physical properties of the material. What is presented is not a facsimile of works in wax or additive manufacture but a primary reaction of tools on metal. I use traditional manufacturing technique (score-folding, soldering, filing and hand-finishing).

From conception, the jewellery is minimal and fundamental. However, through the construction process; complexity is built in to the piece by serendipitous mark making and a real time reaction to a developing form . Always by design, the stone is offered up to the viewer, in a pleasing and unorthodox way.

The story of the gemstone is of fundamental importance in my work and so all the stones used are natural and not overly treated. My belief is that it is important to tell the story of the stones using unique designs in metal.

You can follow Chris on Instagram @chrisbolanddesigns, visit his website

https://www.chrisbolanddesigns.com/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

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A thousand facets sits with the charismatic Allana Lalot and they talk about how she started in the world of sales in the jewelry industry!

She had a passion for music and without knowing, she'll be wrapped in the jewelry world! Hope you can join us for this funny, insightful

and educational conversation.

About Allana:

Allana left Australia at 21 in pursuit of a career in the music industry, which landed her in Vancouver, Canada which has been home for the past 17 years. She has worked in the jewelry industry now for 13 years doing everything from PR to marketing and sales - traveling the globe. She started LALOT 5 years ago with a focus on representing jewelry brands/designers that are handmade, responsible and ethical.

You can follow Allana on Instagram @allanalalot and @lalotcollective, visit her website

https://lalotcollective.com/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

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A thousand facets sits with Rachel Jones, they talk about her beginnings in the jewelry world, her inspirations and how she found her voice!

We discuss her research on creating the ombre alloys that she is getting known for!

Hope you enjoy this wonderful conversation!

Rachel’s handcrafted jewellery brings together colourful gemstones and gold that shifts in light that mesmerize. 

Brimming with colour, each piece is a one of a kind treasure, that’s brings the joy of colour through artistry and craftsmanship.

Inspired by precious jewellery materials, Rachel works with the foundations of jewellery; gold and gemstones. Through hand selecting multi-coloured or colour changing gems to alloying her own gold in-house, Rachel creates future heirlooms with a contemporary twist. 

Bespoke jewellery allows the wearer to combine their unique gemstone and coloured gold combination, the defines their style and personality. 

Each piece starts its journey with a gemstone, hand selected by Rachel from trusted suppliers around the world, from Australian opals and sapphires to Brazilian tourmalines and Bolivian Ametrine. 

Each gemstone is paired with the perfect colour and tone of gold, from buttery 18ct yellow to cool 18ct white or romantic 18ct pink gold. The alchemy of gold is used to craft a spectrum of tones and hues but alloying fine gold, fine silver, copper and sometimes palladium. This means each piece is individual to the wearer and will become a future heirloom to last for generations to come. 

You can follow Rachel on Instagram @racheljonesjewellery, visit her website

https://www.racheljonesjewellery.com/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

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A thousand facets sits with Cristina Villegas from Moyo Gems and we talk about the importance of artisanal miner or small-scale miner (ASM). How she help created an environment of education and empowerment of women miners in Kenya and Tanzania to thrive and the importance of educating oneself in the gemstones and gold we use for our jewelry.

This is a truly important conversation.

Cristina Maria Villegas is the Director of Sustainable Jewelry & Strategic Initiatives at Pact, a global nonprofit organization at work in 40 countries worldwide. She is a leading expert on responsible mineral sourcing and on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). With deep experience across Africa, Asia and Latin America, she is best known for her specialty in colored gemstones, diamonds, and gold. Cristina is the co-founder of Moyo Gems, a direct sourcing initiative focused on the women gemstone miners and entrepreneurs of East Africa. She is a member of the Gemstone Knowledge Hub, is on the Board of Directors of Ethical Metalsmiths, is an ASM advisor to the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030, and is a technical advisor to the Conservation X Prize’s Amazon Grand Challenge. She’s been quoted in Vogue, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Reuters, Wired, JCK, among others. She lectures for Columbia University’s Executive Course on Extractives and for Columbia University’s Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), where she leads the coursework on ASM. In 2021, she won the top prize in jewelry reform: The IAC Award for Leadership in Responsible Practice in Jewelry.

You can follow Cristina on Instagram @cristina.rocks and @moyogems, visit her website

www.moyogems.com , www.natureswealth.org

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

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A thousand facets talk to Romilly Saumarez Smith and they talk about her beginnings as a book binder, her romance with jewelry and her wonderful translators!

About:

In Robert McFarlane's The Wild Places he says that “true wildness is hard to find any more but it is still there in the tiny plants, mosses and lichens that live between rocks and tussocks. They are complete worlds in themselves.”

I hope that my jewellery might be like that. I use diamond beads and small silver and gold pieces secured either side of a drilled out plate to build up these landscapes. The underside, where the wires are balled with the torch, becomes the roots as if a section of earth has been pulled from the ground.

Much of my deep imagination lies under the sea. I like the way that barnacles encrust the surface of things. It's a long process of buildup, a random design that looks completely meant. The making of a piece of jewellery takes time, the placement of small elements doesn't need to be planned too much but builds slowly to a whole.

You can follow Romilly on Instagram @romillysaumarezsmith2, visit her website

https://www.romillysaumarezsmith.com/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

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On the premiere of Season two, A thousand facets sits with the incomparable Gabriella Kiss. They have a candid conversation about her

childhood, her love for everything nature and her relationship with Ted Muehling.

About:

Gabriella Kiss’ delicate, figurative jewelry is at once poetic and scientific. Meticulously crafted in the finest materials, her precision reveals the awesome beauty of nature’s nuances. The daughter of a research scientist, Gabriella studied sculpture at New York’s Pratt Institute, learning to make wax models for casting, a technique that now defines her jewelry designs.

Through her renowned jewelry, Gabriella gracefully honors her enduring fascination with nature, with life cycles, with birth and death and the universe in between. Gabriella has an eye for the small and is drawn to detail, deriving inspiration from the flora and fauna of nature and the life cycles of the natural world and art history. The pieces are meant to have a personal meaning to the wearer, beyond adornment.

“By working in a narrative and symbolic language, I want people to respond and interpret their own personal connections to pieces given to them, or that they choose themselves. My forms are both abstract and/or representational – from a distance, my snake necklace looks like a graceful line drawing, yet up close, the identity of a creature is revealed. These elements of surprise and humor are important in a time where irony and cynicism are everywhere, and sincerity is rare.” 

You can follow Gabriella on Instagram @gabriellakissjewelry, visit her website

https://gabriellakiss.com/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

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On this episode, A thousand facets introduces Season 2 of the podcast and answers some of the questions sent on the Instagram stories.

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A thousand facets sits with Todd Reed, they talk about his beginning in the industry, how mentorship changed his life and how living a life with meaning, thoughtfulness and responsibility is his biggest priority.

About Todd:

Todd Reed is an award-winning American artist and designer whose singular style, incorporating natural and recycled metals, has created an entirely new category of fine jewelry.

Over the course of his 30-year career, Todd’s designs have been featured in books and publications including InStyle, Town and Country, Robb Report, Elle Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. His work has adorned celebrities, royals, politicians, and like-minded collectors worldwide.

You can follow Todd on Instagram @toddreedjewelry , visit his website

https://toddreed.com/

Or if you are in Colorado, visit him at

1911 Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80302

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

https://youtu.be/nKQHjg_E0yE

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A thousand facets sits with Jenna Fennell from East camp goods and they talked about her education, her beginnings at the Met museum and

how she found her voice!.

About:

Jenna Wainwright Fennell and Andy Fennell, the couple behind East Camp Goods, are metalsmiths based in upstate New York. Jenna is a classically trained goldsmith, who learned the fundamentals of metalsmithing at RISD while an undergraduate at Brown University 20 years ago. Andy is a skilled builder with a BFA in Sculpture from SUNY Purchase, well versed in metal forging at a large and small scale. Their jewelry designs are strongly influenced by their experiences working intimately with objects in the underground workshops of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - as a mount-maker and a crate-builder. Together, they share the creative process in designing and making the East Camp Goods jewelry line, creating bold yet delicate sculptural forms, with a finely tuned balance of scale. Working directly with high karat gold, Jenna and Andy melt, hammer, manipulate, and coax forms into shape from sheet and rod. From chain-making to stone-setting, all steps are performed in-house using old world goldsmithing techniques.

You can follow Jenna Fennell on Instagram @eastcampgoods

or visit her website

https://www.eastcampgoods.com/

Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode.

Music by @chris_keys__

https://youtu.be/nKQHjg_E0yE

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